'I haven't made a mark anywhere'

After the failure of ‘Luck’, her full-fledged Bollywood debut opposite Imran Khan, Shruti Hassan hasn’t been seen much in Hindi films.

She made a place for herself in the Southern film industry, but says that she was not avoiding Bollywood — it was simply that commitments down South kept her busy. Shruti made her debut in Hindi films with a cameo appearance in her father
Kamal Hassan’s Hey Ram in 2000. She was seen in a full-fledged role in ‘Luck’, which released in 2009 and then briefly in Madhur Bhandarkar’s Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji
in 2011.

However, both the films did not fare well at the box office. The actress feels that she is yet to make a mark in any film industry. “I haven’t made a mark anywhere. I am very young and still starting out in the industry,” Shruti says. The actress is now looking forward to the release of two Hindi films — Prabhu Deva’s Ramaiya Vastavaiya and Nikhil Advani’s ‘D-Day’.

However, Shruti explains that through these films, she is not looking to make a foothold in the Hindi film industry.

“I don’t know if there is any strategy that works. I was not avoiding Bollywood. I had commitments down South. I have always looked at it as Indian cinema. It just happened coincidentally that both the films are releasing together. But they are polar opposite in terms of the film and character,” Shruti says. “But I will be doing more
Hindi films. You will get to see me more here,” she adds.

There are many actors who would balk at having two of their films release on the same day but Shruti doesn’t belong to this school of her thought. In her opinion, such matters are the concern of the producer.

“It is always the character and the team that matters. Like in the case of ‘D-Day’, the character is strong and different. I feel this role is largely a guest appearance, but Nikhil Advani disagrees with it,” she says.

“I think it is an integral part of the film and I really wanted to do this role. In Ramaiya Vastavaiya, the whole love story is about us. In both the films, the characters are strong,” she adds.